My OLD Lyman is also single cav. I feel your pain,but a pot-o-lead last's a looooonnnngggg time!!!!Originally Posted by dancingbear41
|
   
   
|
|
My OLD Lyman is also single cav. I feel your pain,but a pot-o-lead last's a looooonnnngggg time!!!!
"The remedy for evil men is not the abrogation of the rights of law abiding citizens. The remedy for evil men is the gallows." Thomas Jefferson
David,
The Bator is a short fat boolit, it's about 50 gr (the molds vary from batch to batch, I have five of them), it works well in my Ruger #3, which is a 1:16 twist. I suspect a short fat 50gr boolit will work in a slower twist better than a 50gr. boolit with a long skinny nose, like the Lyman 225415, if you are familiar with that one.
Midsouth WAS the only place to get a Bator mold, Now their website is confusing, because they list Lee's standard C225-55-RF (RCBS clone, with it's correct part number from Lee) as a Bator(which is a custom and never had a Lee part number). In another thread, when I pointed out the difference between these two boolits, a member reported buying this mold from midsouth recently, and they claimed it was the Bator design, instead of the RCBS design. Did he get an old stock mold? and when that stock runs out, the Bators will be gone forever ? I suspect so, as there is no reason for midsouth to pay the custom fees for the Bator, when they can just order the standard RCBS clone...while similar enough for a 'vendor', it's a totally different boolit to us castboolit shooters.
ANYWAY,
David, send my your address, and I'll ship you a 2 cavity Bator mold. The one I'd send you is the older style, without the alignment pins. IIRC, it casts about 52gr with COWW alloy(will probably be 50gr with Lino), The nose is a bit fatter than the Specification, which might be the cats meow, if your old rifle has a worn throat from decades of shooting.
Jon
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
“If someone has a gun and is trying to kill you, it would be reasonable to shoot back with your own gun.”
― The Dalai Lama, Seattle Times, May 2001
WOOHOO!!! PM Inbound! Thank you so much Jon.
For all I know, that RCBS clone may be as good as the Bator. I got a six cavity one when I could and am glad I did. I haven't tried a whole lot of different types, but it looks to me like it should be a good general purpose bullet in any .22 Centerfire.
I recommend one of the Lee type push through sizers, I have found working with those itty bitty bullets to be a pain with a regular sizer luber. I also haven't yet found a top punch that doesn't mark the bullet noses somewhat, though it doesn't seem to adversely affect accuracy the times I've tried it.
Jon told me in a message the mold is a .229, not .225. I'm going to guess it was made for Savage Hi-Power? He said he was going to send it over and I'll be able to give it a shot but I'm not sure if they'll fit inside the cases. At some point I'll be able to pick up a .225 sizer die. Maybe the boolit won't deform bad when I push it through the sizer? But if it doesn't shoot well I'll be sure to pass on the .229 mold to somebody else in need.
I just might be in need for a .228 mould...I just might have sizing goodies, too!
See your mould for trade thread.
Rich already contacted me for the .229 mold. When Jon_B sends it over I'll cast a few boolits and see how they throw. If they do in fact throw a .229 boolit I'll let you guys know so we could trade out. Rich will have first dibs though!
Rich,Rich already contacted me for the .229 mold. When Jon_B sends it over I'll cast a few boolits and see how they throw. If they do in fact throw a .229 boolit I'll let you guys know so we could trade out. Rich will have first dibs though!
Are you playing with 22 Savage High Power or do you just want to play with an oversize mould?
A .22 High Power. Molds are scarce that cast that big, if nothing else, anyone who has a mold that does, I could work a bullet swap or something.
I was "out and about" all day yesterday.
The custom Lee Bator (from midsouth), before Lee upgraded their 2 cavity molds to have alignment pins (and other improvements), were generally oversized...although it seemed each batch was a bit different, from my own personal experience and what was reported here at CB.
This .229 (fat nosed .222) boolit, sized down .227 or .226 should be the cat's meow for davidheart's old, and with possibly a worn throat, Savage 22 Hornet.
Depending on the brass thickness (brand differences), a .227 boolit should have no problem chambering in that savage...at least they do (with R+P and W-W Super brass) in my Ruger #3 which has been shot very little, and should have a fairly tight chamber.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
“If someone has a gun and is trying to kill you, it would be reasonable to shoot back with your own gun.”
― The Dalai Lama, Seattle Times, May 2001
I never thought to slug the barrels on my .22 Hornets, both are old, but bullets sized to .225 seem to shoot well in both.
I have good news and I have bad (sad) news.
The good news is Buckeye's bullets arrived and I loaded up about 10 light rounds with 1.5-2gr of Bullseye before work today. They shot great!
The bad news is my grandfathers old 3-9 Weaver scope won't adjust anymore from left to right. So all of my shots are 7 inches left at 25 yards. I had just bought this one inch scope mount for it too ($50!) The original scope is a 3/4" 4x Weaver that's very very dark and clouded brown. Target acquisition is only possible in perfect light.
The silver lining is that I was still able to group <1" at ~30 yards with iron sights and Buckeye's lyman bullets and without my grandfather's scope and mount topping the rifle it now weighs about a pound and a half lighter and points very quickly.
I just had this vision in my mind of "My grandfather's rifle with my grandfather's scope" and without the scope I can't take full advantage of this rifle's capabilities because as I said before, it EASILY groups within a dime for what one might call "jacketed deer/coyote loads."
Last edited by davidheart; 02-25-2016 at 02:13 PM.
Rich and Ron, y'alls boolits came in and I was able to load up some subsonic rounds yesterday. I had some issues chambering Jon's boolits and they are definitely oversized as evidenced by the case stretch!
After having two stuck rounds in my barrel when chambering to standard length I decided to slug my barrel with one of Jon's oversized boolits. Before slugging, Jon's boolit measured .2285
After slugging my bore the boolit measured .222 at the grooves and .217 at the lands. I took several measurements just to be sure.
I'll test for groups later. The initial loads I made with 1.5gr bullseye shooting at soup cans at 50 yards open sights 5 rounds each the only ones which hit were the plain base NOE 45gr Rich sent and Buckeye's Lyman 22596 gas check if that means anything. I need to figure something out with my scope or strap the gun down in a buddies lead sled before I could test for groups.
Well, I guess I called that wrong(with your rifle having worn chamber)
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
“If someone has a gun and is trying to kill you, it would be reasonable to shoot back with your own gun.”
― The Dalai Lama, Seattle Times, May 2001
It sure sounds like Rich is going to have a .228 mould to go with his 22 Savage High Power Lyman 310 tool!
Sorry Jon. I don't think my chamber is worn at all! It was a really really good try though and the mold is in great shape.
If it were me the chamber would have definitely been worn. I'm thinking my grandfather wasn't as ardent of a shooter as I am!
I never have slugged mine, just sized to .225 and away I ent, worked fine.
The .22 Hornet standard bore before WWII was .223, like a .22 LR. Not sure exactly when Savage started making the 340, but I'm surprised your bore slugged that small.
Did those 45 grain WFN feed in yours? Mine won't feed it, but to be fair, I haven't worked at trying to get it to feed much yet.
I personally think you'll find that Bator to be you best all around bullet when you get one that is sized right for your rifle.
That NOE bullet accounted for another one this evening. I'm still impressed by how the terminal performance/energy transfer of that bullet works. Two grains of Bullseye isn't a strong load, but it hammers little critters, even with body shots, they go nowhere and meat destruction is minimal to nonexistant. Can't say enough good things about it.
I was just about to ask you how many grains of bullseye you'd recommend! I was trying 1.5 and getting an inch at 30 yards. I'll give 2 a try! I think that NOE bullet works so well because of the large front meplat. It seems to be an effective combination for cast boolits no matter what size.
I doubt the squirrels could tell the difference between 1.5 grain and two, and there is a pretty significant noise difference if that's important. I really like the RCBS Lil Danday powder measure and got the smallest rotor they had which throws 1.7 grains of Bullseye. When I try it, if the groups are the same, I think I'm going to standardize on that out of simplicity.
Posting Permissions
| BP | Bronze Point | IMR | Improved Military Rifle | PTD | Pointed |
| BR | Bench Rest | M | Magnum | RN | Round Nose |
| BT | Boat Tail | PL | Power-Lokt | SP | Soft Point |
| C | Compressed Charge | PR | Primer | SPCL | Soft Point "Core-Lokt" |
| HP | Hollow Point | PSPCL | Pointed Soft Point "Core Lokt" | C.O.L. | Cartridge Overall Length |
| PSP | Pointed Soft Point | Spz | Spitzer Point | SBT | Spitzer Boat Tail |
| LRN | Lead Round Nose | LWC | Lead Wad Cutter | LSWC | Lead Semi Wad Cutter |
| GC | Gas Check |
Reply With Quote